Climate Investigations Center v. United States Department of Energy

CourtDistrict Court, District of Columbia
DecidedAugust 11, 2022
DocketCivil Action No. 2016-0124
StatusPublished

This text of Climate Investigations Center v. United States Department of Energy (Climate Investigations Center v. United States Department of Energy) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, District of Columbia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Climate Investigations Center v. United States Department of Energy, (D.D.C. 2022).

Opinion

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

_________________________________________ ) CLIMATE INVESTIGATIONS CENTER, ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) v. ) Case No. 16-cv-00124 (APM) ) UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT ) OF ENERGY, ) ) Defendant. ) _________________________________________ )

MEMORANDUM OPINION

I.

The parties in this long-running Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) dispute are before the

court for their fifth round of summary judgment briefing. Def.’s Third Renewed Mot. for Summ.

J., ECF No. 72 [hereinafter Def.’s Mot.]; Pl.’s Cross-Mot. for Summ. J., ECF No. 73 [hereinafter

Pl.’s Mot.]. This iteration centers on issues arising out of the court’s December 6, 2019 Order

requiring Defendant U.S. Department of Energy (“DOE”) to conduct a supplemental search of the

agency’s Office of the Secretary for additional, non-duplicative responsive records.

Climate Investigations Ctr. v. U.S. Dep’t of Energy (Climate Investigations III), No. 16-cv-124

(APM), 2019 WL 6683751 (D.D.C. Dec. 6, 2019). Plaintiff Climate Investigations Center

challenges (1) the adequacy of the supplemental search, (2) DOE’s partial or entire withholding of

nine records under Exemption 5 pursuant to the deliberative process privilege, and (3) whether

DOE has met the FOIA Improvement Act’s “foreseeable harm standard” as to eight of the nine

challenged records. The court takes up these issues in that order. As with the last round of cross-motions for

summary judgment, the court presumes familiarity with the facts of this case as set forth in its

previous opinions 1 and therefore discusses them only as necessary to address the outstanding

issues raised by the parties. For the reasons that follow, the parties’ cross-motions for summary

judgment are granted in part and denied in part.

II.

A.

An agency in a FOIA case must show that it conducted an adequate search. See Students

Against Genocide v. Dep’t of State, 257 F.3d 828, 838 (D.C. Cir. 2001). An adequate search is

one that is “reasonably calculated to uncover all relevant documents.” Oglesby v. U.S. Dep’t of

the Army, 920 F.2d 57, 68 (D.C. Cir. 1990). The agency bears the burden of proving that it

performed such a search, and it may rely on sworn affidavits or declarations to do so. See SafeCard

Servs., Inc. v. SEC, 926 F.2d 1197, 1200 (D.C. Cir. 1991). The court may grant summary judgment

to the agency based on this evidence if it is reasonably specific and contradicted by neither record

evidence “nor . . . evidence of agency bad faith.” Mil. Audit Project v. Casey, 656 F.2d 724, 738

(D.C. Cir. 1981); Beltranena v. Clinton, 770 F. Supp. 2d 175, 181–82 (D.D.C. 2011). A plaintiff

can rebut an agency’s supporting affidavits and declarations by demonstrating, with “specific

facts,” that there remains a genuine issue as to whether the agency performed an adequate search

for documents responsive to the plaintiff’s request. See Span v. U.S. Dep’t of Just., 696 F. Supp.

2d 113, 119 (D.D.C. 2010) (quoting U.S. Dep’t of Just. v. Tax Analysts, 492 U.S. 136, 142 (1989)).

Agency affidavits and declarations are accorded “a presumption of good faith, which cannot be

rebutted by purely speculative claims about the existence and discoverability of other documents.”

1 See Climate Investigations Ctr. v. U.S. Dep’t of Energy (Climate Investigations I), No. 16-cv-124 (APM), 2017 WL 4004417 (D.D.C. Sept. 11, 2017), at *1–3.

2 Shapiro v. U.S. Dep’t of Just., No. 20-5318, 2022 WL 2760812, at *3 (D.C. Cir. July 15, 2022)

(internal quotation marks omitted).

B.

In the court’s last memorandum opinion, it ordered DOE to conduct a search of the Office

of the Secretary for additional, non-duplicative responsive records. Climate Investigations III,

2019 WL 6683751, at *5. To establish the adequacy of that search, DOE offers the

Third Supplemental Declaration of Alexander C. Morris, a FOIA Officer at DOE. See Def.’s Mot.,

Ex. 2, ECF No. 72-3 [hereinafter Suppl. Morris Decl.]. Morris states that DOE looked for

responsive records in hard copy, archived, and the electronic files of 22 custodians, consisting of

former Secretaries, Deputy Secretaries, Chiefs of Staff, and Deputy Chiefs of Staff. Id. ¶ 14.

Morris further explains that DOE used search terms that the court previously found to be

reasonable. Id. And he notes that DOE conducted an additional search for electronic records

across the same custodians using two specific search terms requested by Plaintiff. Id. ¶ 15.

Still, Plaintiff says that DOE’s search was not adequate. Plaintiff first faults DOE for what

it describes as “irregularities” in the production. Pl.’s Mot., Pl.’s Mem. of P. & A. in Supp. of Pl.’s

Mot., ECF No. 73-1 [hereinafter Pl.’s Mem.], at 11–12. These include receiving several duplicate

documents from past productions in the most recent productions, not receiving a missing

attachment to a responsive email from DOE’s April 2021 production, and failing to produce a

letter originally authored by Southern Company and sent to DOE. Id. at 12, 14–15. But these so-

called “irregularities” do not demonstrate an inadequate search. “[T]he adequacy of a search is

determined not by the fruits of the search, but by the appropriateness of its methods.” See Reps.

Comm. for Freedom of Press v. FBI (Reps. Comm. I), 877 F.3d 399, 408 (D.C. Cir. 2017) (internal

quotation marks and alterations omitted). Plaintiff does no more than attack the search’s output,

3 not the methods employed to conduct it. A “small collection of . . . technical failings” are not

indicative of an inadequate search. SafeCard Servs., 926 F.2d at 1202.

Plaintiff also claims that, based on the records produced, DOE did not search for records

from the “desk of the Secretary.” Pl.’s Mem. at 13. However, as DOE points out, the supplemental

Vaughn index contains multiple emails from then-Secretary Steven Chu. See Def.’s Mot., Ex. 4,

ECF No. 72-4 [hereinafter Suppl. Index], at 84, 98, 118. Plaintiff’s mere speculation that more

records should exist does not create a genuine dispute of fact that the search was inadequate.

Suppl. Morris Decl. ¶ 14; see also Shapiro, 2022 WL 2760812, at *3.

Plaintiff further asserts that DOE failed to adequately follow up on leads that arose during

the search. Pl.’s Mem. at 14–15. Specifically, Plaintiff argues that the failure of the search to turn

up responsive records that would “logically be created around key meetings concerning the future

of the Kemper coal plant” suggests that Defendant was required to alter its search parameters or

otherwise take additional steps to locate them. Id. at 14. Plaintiff is correct that DOE cannot bury

its head in the sand and must “follow through on obvious leads to discover requested documents.”

Valencia-Lucena v. U.S.

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